Camp Out: Finding Home in an Unstable World is the third in a series of summer projects that will use the natural and cultural resources of St. Louis as a site for artistic inquiry and production. The artists invited for Camp Out will conduct "action research" to comment on, add to, or question the unique history of the St. Louis region and of the role artists play in addressing urgent social questions. The title Camp Out suggests the two extremes of living in the landscape. For some, camping is a deliberate "back-to-nature" experience precluded in our urbanized world. For other past and present global citizens, however, displacement from home and finding basic resources for living is a great struggle. Laumeier Sculpture Park, at the nexus between city and country, urban and rural, will present the range of artistic forms that illuminate these compelling issues. Partners include Washington University College of Architecture, the Missouri History Museum, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Marilu Knode, executive director, Laumeier Sculpture Park and Aronson Endowed Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, was most recently associate director/head of research for F.A.R. (Future Arts Research) at Arizona State University and senior curator, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. She has organized one-person projects with artists Matts Leiderstam (Sweden), Mona Marzouk (Egypt), Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon/Belgium), Jennifer Steinkamp (USA), and recent thematic groups shows include Water, Water Everywhere...., Car Culture, Celebrity and Contemporary Scandinavian Art. In 2008 she organized a three-day symposium entitled "The Desert Between Us," with artists, scholars, and academics using the desert as a metaphoric point of cultural contact. She was the American commissioner for the 1998 Cairo Biennial with Nancy Spero and co-founder of a curatorial practice program at the American University Cairo. She has written for exhibitions in Egypt, France, Germany, and The Netherlands.

Elizabeth Smith, curator, Chicago, specializes in 20th and 21st-century art and architecture. Smith is executive director, Curatorial Affairs at the Art Gallery of Ontario. She was previously James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and curator at MoCA Los Angeles. She has organized exhibitions with artists Jenny Holzer, Kerry James Marshall, Lee Bontecou, Catherine Opie, Cindy Sherman, and Toba Khedoori as well as thematic exhibitions including Sustainable Architecture in Chicago; At the End of the Century: 100 Years of Architecture; Urban Revisions: Current Projects for the Public Realm; and Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses.

Silvia Karman Cubina, executive director/chief curator, Bass Museum of Art, was previously director of The Moore Space, Miami, 2002-2008, where she worked with artists Allora & Calzadlla, Carlos Amorales, John Bock, Tracey + The Plastics, Hernan Bas, Jim Lambie, Joan Jonas and Yang Fudong. Group shows include French Kissing in the USA; None of the Above: Contemporary Work by Puerto Rican Artists; Javier Cambre's project for the 2002 Whitney Biennial; Pepón Osorio: Door to Door, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan; and she was the Puerto Rico commissioner to the 1997 Bienal de Sao Paolo.

Andy Trivers, principal, Trivers Associates, a St. Louis-based architectural firm, is a Board member at Laumeier Sculpture Park. Trivers graduated from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis and founded his firm in 1982, which focuses on urban revitalization, sustainable rehabilitation of historical buildings, and sensitivity to the culture of place and has been responsible for the restoration of some of St. Louis's most important buildings.

Ruth L. Bohan is chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Missouri-St. Louis where she has taught for more than 25 years. She holds a PhD in American Studies and specializes in 19th and 20th-century American art. Her most recent publication is Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art, 1850-1920 (2006).

Bruce Lindsey is Dean and E. Desmond Lee Professor of Community Collaboration in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis, where he serves on the steering committee of the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability. Formerly the head of the School of Architecture at Auburn University and associate head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon, Lindsey received bachelor's and master's degrees in art from the University of Utah and his master's degree in architecture from Yale.

Laumeier Sculpture Park, founded in 1976 and accredited by the American Association of Museums, presents, preserves, and interprets sculpture by local, national, and international artists. The 105-acre park expands the context of contemporary sculpture beyond the traditional confines of a museum and organizes shows and commissions new works that actively engage the complex relationship between the natural and built environment. Laumeier operates in partnership with St. Louis County Parks and is a unique cultural resource in the region, providing high-quality learning experiences for our 300,000 annual visitors from the region and abroad through exhibitions, lectures, workshops, film screenings, and performances. Laumeier has expanded its partnerships across the region to create new programs that interpret collective experiences of our changing world.